Recently, a new rumor suggests that the next Assassin's Creed game will be released at some point in 2020 and would be set on Rome, contrary to what many have predicted earlier about the game being set on feudal Japan or China.

In an attempt to discover its roots, AC franchise went back to Ancient Egypt in Origins and then moved to classical Greece of 431 BC for the next installment, Odyssey. Currently code named Legion, a new AC game is coming in 2020 according to a latest buzz.

On the message board discussion about upcoming Watch Dogs 3 rumors of the website Fireden, it is suggested that the premise for forthcoming Assassin's Creed title may take place somewhere around 169 AD, when the reign of Marcus Aurelius was ending.

The same source also suggests that players will be given the choice to pick between a male and female assassin character named Cassius or Lucia like Alexios and Kassandra from like the previous Assassin's Creed release.

These lead characters would likely be descendants of characters from either Origins or Odyssey. Focused mostly on Assassins and politics from the First Civilization history of Rome, both newcomers and series veterans will find things they enjoy.

Ubisoft is targeting "Assassin's Creed Legion" to release on platforms like PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as well as next gen consoles, which are yet to be announced from both Microsoft and Sony. Until any new information arises, these are all we know for now.

Although the series has already visited Rome in 2010 through Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, it would still be nice to revisit once more long after. However, it would be wise to take the news with a grain of salt since there is no more concrete evidence other than the leaked image.

The news got many veteran series fans excited with nostalgia aside from new generation of fans who joined from Odyssey. The remastered version of the game is currently all set to launch in March 29, 2019 for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Not only have they updated the title with 4K resolution and HDR support, higher-resolution textures were added as they included gameplay improvements. All of the original single-player DLC from AC3 has been made available as well.

Assassin's Creed III: Liberation Remastered receives similar graphical updates and is also added to the premium content. Anyone other than Season Pass holders of Odyssey willing to get these games can purchase them separately.

ACIII Remastered is about to explore the chronicles of half-English Assassin Connor on 18th-century Boston during American Revolution. He dedicates himself to keep up the legacy of their centuries-old Brotherhood alive and to stop Templars from taking control over colonies.

ACIII: Liberation follows the struggles of a French-African descendant protagonist Aveline de Grandpre around the same time on New Orleans. She fought against the oppression of authority during Spanish occupation in Louisiana to secure freedom.

Although many fans accuses ACIII for moving aside from the footsteps of its predecessor, the game introduced the mechanics of naval combat that latter titles has adapted to full potential while receiving popularity among crowd.

Whether you acquire Assassin's Creed III Remastered as a downloadable add-on for Odyssey or buy it individually, this is your ticket to go back to the roots of franchise and enjoy the thrilling experience at fullest in modern day gaming platforms.

Update 2.13 is a major game changer to introduce a slew of brand-new content for everyone with lots of improvements to make the game better and it is going to be the first add-on for Expansion Pass owners since launch.

Available from January 21, Update 2.13 will take Agent 47 to Hokkaido, Japan to take care of a target named Dmitri Fedorov as part of a winter-themed seasonal event "Snow Festival". For a limited time from today, it will be going on live and run till February 12.

Those who already played the 2016 game Hitman are familiar with Hokkaido as it was one of the six locations and is also included in the free downloadable Hitman Legacy Pack for owners of that game alongside new gameplay elements.

The developers have enhanced and updated the location with some lights to color it up some more to make it suitable for the festival. The Winter Sports Pack introduces items like arctic tool box, piton, quickdraw, snowball and winter sports suit.

Upon unlocking those during the event will allow players to keep them for use forever. The tight-fitting sweater helps you fight right into the snowy occasion and the snowball is a good way of distracting others. Aside for climbing, the spiked piton could be a deadly weapon if you want.

The Winter Sports Pack DLC comes along with the two-part Expansion Pass that costs only $39.99 and is also included with the H2 Gold Edition costing $99.99. Those who have purchased H2 Silver Edition by spending $79.99 will receive the first half.

Of course this content doesn't cover Expansion Pass 1 in its entirety as there will be challenges, location, missions, outfits, weapons and a brand-new map for Sniper Assassin mode. So, presumably Warner Bros. will be rolling out more content over time.

Update 2.13 comes along with a number of bug fixes and improvements to better your experience of playing as the silent assassin. An issue of game crashing from main menu during Ghost Mode session is also taken care of.

From January 22, even people who didn't purchase Hitman 2 can take part into the Snow Festival and get the Hokkaido Legacy Location as a free trial on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, which will end on February 12 for all three platforms.

Both of these classic games are coming with 4K visual improvements at 60 frames per second but most probably you will need a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X to enjoy that. Texture resolution is improved and texture format gets upgraded while super-sampling is added.

Improved lighting and updated controls are there to help the silent assassin with clarity towards his objective at hand. Other features include heightened shadow map and mirror resolutions to enhance the overall gameplay experience for seasoned veterans and new players.

When these two titles were submitted to Pan European Game Information board to get content ratings on September 2018, there were rumors and speculation that we are getting a re-release of some sorts, which turned out to be true after all.

Considering how the latest release of IO Interactive was received by fans, launching remastered version of Absolution and Blood Money for consoles is quite a smart move. However, the developer hasn't revealed any plans to release a PC version yet.

Tuesday, December 11, 2018

IDW Games and Konami Entertainment have signed on to bring Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game in 2019.

These days, tabletop games are really making an impact to a larger group of video game fan-base who actually indulge in one of those board games adapted from their favorite franchises and we have so many examples in front of us that back it up.

IDW Games have announced today that they are teaming up with Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. to adapt the story of the very first game of their acclaimed series into Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game for an exciting gaming experience.

IDW has previously worked with Konami, the original developer/publisher of the series, to bring on the saga on the pages of comic-books and now they are partnering up once again to adapt the legacy of MGS into miniature tabletop gaming medium.

Designer Emerson Matsuuchi, who was the man behind the sci-fi stealth ops masterpiece board game Specter Ops, has joined the venture, which he considered as an honor and eventually came up with a mockup of the cover for the product.

Francesco Orrù has a reputation as a highly regarded sculptor and he is supposed to work on miniature figures for the project while artist Kenneth Loh (Dead Rising: Road to Fortune, G.I. Joe) will be providing art. Eager players will have a chance to test the demo at E3 2019.

The fact that modern day video game maestro Hideo Kojima being the mind behind the inception of Metal Gear Solid franchise made it one of the greatest and even after his departure, the series still thrives among fans.

When Metal Gear Solid: The Board Game is fully completed, players will assume the role of Solid Snake, while play along with Meryl Silverburgh, Dr. Hal "Otacon" Emmerich and the Cyborg Ninja, Gray Fox as they get into a fully cooperative system to take on sandbox-style missions.

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Learn more about the Rival Games studio creative forces behind the making of Thief of Thieves: Season One.

Developer/publisher Rival Games took materials from original comic-book series Thief of Thieves by creator Robert Kirkman (Invincible, The Walking Dead) to create action-adventure game Thief of Thieves: Season One while keeping the vibe of the source intact.

The main plot centers around a female lead named Celia, who works as an apprentice for Conrad "Redmond" Paulson, the titular Thief of Thieves. The stealth and social elements of gameplay is blend nicely as the creative minds behind it worked so hard for it.

The game is currently out on Steam, Xbox One and Xbox Game Pass to play on your preferred platform. Director of art and audio teams decides to talk in-depth about how they collectively managed to do a pretty awesome job creating the game.

The very first unique challenge was designing the audio that well suits the feel of graphic novel. Creating sounds to generate the same level of atmosphere that is consistent and ample with the comic frame scenes required well-planned guidelines.

In overall, the mastermind behind many events, the character of Conrad "Redmond" Paulson is portrayed in a classic way. An extended vibe of that can be felt on Celia's home base and on other key part of the game to keep up the consistency in music influence.

You may notice the use of modern rock- influenced music in action sequences to maintain a dynamic and textural contrast. Whatever gap there was between classical music and rock, were overlapped with additional sound effects.

Spotting music and sound effects during the graphic novel segments of the game was one of the technical parts of the game where the pacing was to be short ad accurately timed to the comic panels as a player controls the frames.

The creative team of audio department carefully picked up sound effects to either include them in places where they saw it fitting or to completely leave them out if not that necessary. All these efforts were to visually portray the storytelling format of the comic-books.

In terms of designing background art, Thief of Thieves: Season One offered a lot of freedom and opportunity for the art team to think outside the box. This is the sole reason why the illustrations used in the game gives you a distinct vibe than many others.

In favor of using a heavy ink style to carve up every backdrop, character, object and fine details, the team ditched texture maps and result came out in vibrant art pieces. The biggest plus side of this move was that each level would look different and unique.

Since the game is an adaptation of a popular comic-book, people are inevitably going to compare the game world with the one they saw in colored pages. To create more in-depth feel, some of the objects had to be drawn from more than a few different angles.

There is a 25% off for Thief of Thieves: Season One on Steam to celebrate the launch of the game on Xbox One. Also, a membership to Xbox Game Pass will let you play the game for free as long as it is on their catalog that has more than 100 games for their subscribers.

The return of silent assassin carries out elements from the previous game of 2016 and then incorporating them with the newest features developed for the game. Not only is the title the most up-to-date in franchise but it also is the best iteration of the protagonist.

To hunt down the mysterious Shadow Client, 47 go on a global chase throughout Hawke’s Bay in New Zealand, Miami, Santa Fortuna of Colombia, Whittleton Creek in Vermont, Sgàil in North Atlantic and even locations of Mumbai, India.

Each of these locations will present tons of opportunities to get the job done if you keep an open eye and many character will come and go while you meet them to overhear conversations related to the job. Killing your targets and then getting out alive is the task.

Test your assassination skills from hundreds of challenges in three different levels to prep you up for the Silent Assassin rating. Aside from going deep down inside the life of Agent 47, Hitman 2 brings out two new multiplayer modes for players.

The first one among the twp is Sniper Assassin mode, where you go solo or play in online co-op with fellow ICA operatives Stone or Knight, aiming for long-range kill. All you have to do is to take down targets to earn points, unlock challenges and upgrade your rifle.

The second one is a unique 1v1 competitive play called Ghost Mode, where the multiplayer mode pits you in a direct PvP match to get five target kills before your opponent. You will be on two different realities that doesn't affect each other but let you see the progress of your competitor as he moves.

Before we jump into the final notes, we offer you to take a look at the official gameplay launch trailer that briefly showcases what you are getting into.

Developer IO Interactive has more plans for Hitman 2 post-launch live content and they are already bringing actor Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Oath) as the first Elusive Target Mark Faba, who goes by the name of The Undying.

November 20 marks the arrival of the content and Elusive Target runs for only 14 days and awards you Explosive Pen for completing it, so do not miss it out anyhow. The studio is very proud to bring back Agent 47 to dedicated fans of the series and promises to keep up with players by providing more in future.

So far, the game looks impressive and it comes with a lot of improvements to gameplay elements. A trailer is just released to celebrate the launch of the game and with that actor Sean Bean (Game of Thrones, The Oath) returns to play an in-game character.

The role Sean is playing in the game is of an Elusive Target named Mark Faba but he is mostly known to people as "The Undying". In the previous trailer, he came for a therapy session and opened up about his life before shooting down the counselor, revealing him to be an assailant sent to kill him.

He now explains that a true assassin doesn't need a silencer pistol or a hidden blade, instead he should use his head to become the master of his craft. He then shows using a rubber ducky as a detonator and toilet flush as a distraction noise for others.

To be innovative while on work you can take a weird disguise by wearing a huge mascot suit and then use a big fish, boat, a frying pan, a steel pipe or propane tank to hit your target. Electrocuting them is not off the table as well.

As he was closing his statement and takes a sip of his drink, it is implied that he was served by the silent killer protagonist who purposefully spilled poison in the glass previously. He then goes outside blending into the crowd after changing into his work dress.

Considering how every character Sean Bean ever plays always end up dying, his role as "The Undying" is quite a pun here. Because, not only is he going down one way or another, he hinted to bite the dust pretty easily according to what the trailer suggests.

The game is a follow up to Hitman from 2016, which stated to revamp the whole franchise but the lead, Agent 47 remains the same in his role. You can pre-order from the Standard, Silver, Gold or Collector's Edition of the game if you haven't already.